A goalless draw decided the Manchester City summit against its guest, Inter Milan, at the Etihad Stadium, in the first round of the UEFA Champions League, on Wednesday evening.
The two teams in the 2023 final, which Manchester City won, came out with a clean sheet after the players competed to waste easy opportunities in front of the two goals, especially the English team, which wasted more than one opportunity in the final minutes, which witnessed the brilliance of Yann Sommer, Inter Milan’s goalkeeper.
Each team had to settle for a point, before Manchester City play away to Slovakia’s Slovan Bratislava in early October.
As for Inter Milan, they will play a match that seems easy at home and in front of their fans in the second round against Serbian Crvenya Zvizda.
In a second match, Paris Saint-Germain of France began its journey in the same tournament with a hard-fought victory over its guest, Girona of Spain, 1-0.
Girona were on their way to snatching a valuable point in their first match in the prestigious continental competition, as they kept a clean sheet until the last minute before their Argentine goalkeeper, Paulo Gazzaniga, made a grave mistake in catching a strong cross from the Portuguese international defender, Nuno Mendes, who had penetrated from the left side, and it slipped from his hands and passed between his legs and into the goal.
Relief came in the last minute when Mendes penetrated the area and passed a strong, low cross that Gassaniga tried to catch, but it slipped out of his hands and passed between his legs into the goal (90).
In addition to Girona, Saint-Germain plays with Manchester City of England, Bayern Munich of Germany, Atletico Madrid of Spain, Arsenal of England, Eindhoven of the Netherlands, Salzburg of Austria and Stuttgart of Germany.
In contrast, Girona will play against Liverpool and Arsenal from England, Milan from Italy, Feyenoord from the Netherlands and Eindhoven from the Netherlands, Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia and Sturm Graz from Austria.
In a third match, substitute English striker Jamie Baino-Gittens led his team Borussia Dortmund, the German runner-up last season, to a big win over its host Club Brugge of Belgium, with three clean goals, of which he scored a brace.
Bayno Gittens gave Dortmund the lead in the 76th minute after receiving a pass from international captain Emre Djan and shooting it powerfully from inside the area directly into the net. He then added the second when he received a ball inside the area from Felix Nemecha, dribbled past two defenders and shot it into the goal (86).
The other substitute, Guinean international Serhou Guirassy, sealed the win with a third goal from a penalty kick, which he took after being fouled by defender Brandon Miquele (90+5).
For its part, Scottish champions Celtic began their Champions League campaign with a crushing 5-1 win over visiting Slovan Bratislava, who are participating in Europe’s premier club competition for the first time.
Celtic took the lead after 17 minutes through Liam Scales with a powerful header from close range following a corner, while Kyogo Furuhashi doubled the lead two minutes after the restart following a cross from Nicholas Great-Kun.
Arne Engels scored the third from the penalty spot after Danilo Ihnatenko brought down Alistair Johnstone in the 56th minute before Kevin Wimmer pulled one back for the visitors with a superb strike into the far corner five minutes later.
Daisen Maeda restored Celtic’s three-goal advantage after beating goalkeeper Dominik Takac in the 70th minute and substitute Adam Idah completed the rout with a simple strike three minutes from time.
